School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
Research has shown that television plays a significant role in the lives of children around the world, with both positive and negative effects. The United States govemment through the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) attempts to ensure that American young people receive some positive benefit from broadcast television by requiring stations to include programs that serve their educational and informational needs. The Disney Corporation supplies the American broadcaster, ABC Television, with programs that are supposed to comply with these requirements. In addition, Disney exports many of these programs around the world via its transnational subsidiaries like Disney Channels Worldwide. This paper examines one of these informational and educational programs, Emperor's New School. This series is set in a mythical Andean kingdom and features a selfish and rude 18-year-old soon-to-be emperor who calls his love interest a “hottie hot hottie” and lives by the slogan, “It's all about me.” This research traces the history of American regulation of children's programming, examines whether Emperor's New School meets the regulatory standards set by the FCC and determines the type of information and education children around the world are gaining from the series.
